Project Manager Resume Template

In the business world, across a wide range of companies from small shops to multinational corporations, the field of project management is growing larger every day. More and more high level decision makers, department heads and business owners are beginning to see the value of having staff dedicated solely to coordinating from start to finish instead of passing this duty onto already busy managers and their subordinates. Experienced managers are now being sought whose sole duty is the shepherd a mission from the planning stages, through every milestone and deliverable, through completion and even post project satisfaction testing and refining. This lucrative field is ripe for those with advanced knowledge who are already working as project managers as well as management professionals who don’t have the title of project manager but have run projects and initiatives as part of their normal duties.

A resume for a person seeking a job as a project manager must convey to the hiring manager exactly what kind of employee they will be getting. It must be professionally written with the utmost care and attention to detail. The recipient must feel all the preparation and thorough execution put in to a project manager resume when they read it. The way to do this is to target the resume. Rather than keeping a generic resume on hand, consider your specific abilities, your duties and accomplishments at all your past jobs, your education and certifications, and then match them to exactly what the employer is looking for. Read the job listing and plan your resume based on it much like you would plan for a project. Execute the resume only when your proper planning has been done. This level of care will definitely come across in the finished product and will go a long way to show what kind of project manager you will be.

The type of resume you submit for the position of project manager greatly depends on your experience. It’s a very specialized field. If you already have experience in the field as a project manager, then it’s a good idea to highlight this specific experience with a chronological resume. This format stresses work experience. A functional format resume should be used, however, if you are new to the project management field but have skills that transfer to project management and would like to accentuate these as the most important aspect of your resume.

Here is an example of a chronological resume written by an experienced project manager:

In my downtime, I met with other senior project coordinators to obtain a more well-rounded view of the company, its mission and our part in it.

Law Firm of Thomas and Fetting
IT Manager
2002 – 2005

Oversaw Information Technology staff for major law firm.

Guided project to move all servers to collocation facility in order to increase uptime, reliability and service by 50%.

Initiated and oversaw many other projects, including large scale telecom upgrades, disaster recovery system overhaul and the IT portion of the Firm’s move to a new office.

Education:

Masters in Business Administration with a focus on Project management, New South Wales School of Business, 2002

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, NSW International University, 1996

In the example above, Jennifer has a lot of project management experience, from a previous job as a manager all the way up through her current job with the official title of Project Manager. She is far removed from her education, almost a decade away, so her experience is far more impressive. As such, she is using a chronological resume that tells the story of her career in order. If we were faced with a wholly different Jennifer, one with management experience but no actual “Project Manager” title, we’d more likely see a functional resume like this:

Objective: To use my management experience and my MBA to transition to the field of project management with an established company looking for a fresh approach and new ideas.

Skills:

Exceptional project management experience.

Skilled leader, mentor and coach.

Excellent at communicating complex ideas to non-technical co-workers and management.

adept at budgeting and project analysis.

Experience:

Law Firm of Thomas and Fetting
IT Manager
2007 – Present

Guided project to move all servers to collocation facility in order to increase uptime, reliability and service by 50%.

Oversaw firm-wide telecom upgrade which encompassed four different offices. Project was delivered early and under budget.

Coordinated initiative to overhaul the disaster recovery system. Old system had failing backups and used outdated technology. New robotic library with redundant disc backup has not failed since installation.

Tyrell Corporation
Manager of Network Systems
2003 – 2007

Led a program to switch corporate ISP. Saw project through implementation, increasing bandwidth and lowering costs.

Spearheaded an initiative to replace company fax machines with an online eFax service. Lowered phone line, paper and supplies costs by 75%.

Worked with senior engineers to design and evaluate new VoIP system to increase reliability and ease of use.

Collaborated with Helpdesk manager to implement Syamntec Ghost imaging system to reduce time and effort in new computer rollout.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, NSW International University, 2003.

Currently pursuing MBA in Project management at New South Wales School of Business.

Interned in Network Department of Tyrell Corporation for three years, then hired as network manager directly out of University.

In this example, Jennifer has some project management experience form previous jobs, but has not served specifically in this capacity. In this case, she has chosen to list her skills first, and then spotlight definite project management accomplishments from each job. Yes she had other duties, but this is a perfect example of targeting a resume to match the job. Regardless of whether Jennifer is a project manager right now with years of experience, seen in the first resume, or a department head looking to get into project management as a career, writing a high quality, focused resume should always be her first step on the road to her first job or her next job in the field of project management.

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